Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright decide to follow a
strange pupil, Susan Foreman, home one night. “Home” turns out
to be a time machine -- the TARDIS -- whose outer appearance of a battered
blue police box leads to a dizzyingly immense futuristic interior. The
TARDIS is owned by Susan's grandfather, the Doctor, and the two are really
alien wanderers in time and space. To prevent Ian and Barbara from
revealing what they've discovered, the Doctor makes his temperamental
machine leave 1963 England, only to land in the era of the caveman.
Captured by natives, the four must escape back to the TARDIS before they
are sacrificed by a tribe which is trying to regain the secret of making
fire.

Production

In 1962, Donald Wilson, Head of the BBC's Script Department, was asked by
Light Entertainment Head Eric Maschwitz to commission a survey to
determine whether it was feasible for the BBC to produce a science-fiction
programme. Wilson asked Donald Bull and Alice Frick of the Script
Department to undertake an initial survey; this was followed by a second
survey conducted by Frick and colleague John Blaylock. They determined
that good ideas for science-fiction series would involve either telepathy
or, preferably, time travel. Frick and Blaylock cited Poul Anderson's
short story collection Guardians Of Time as possibly worthy of
adaptation or emulation.

In December, Sydney Newman arrived at the BBC to take over the post of
Head of Drama, replacing Michael Barry. He quickly set about
revolutionising the structure and methods of the Corporation. A Canadian,
Newman had been a producer for the CBC when he was lured to England to
fill a similar role at ABC Television. There, Newman created such
programmes as Armchair Theatre, The Avengers, and the
science-fiction series Pathfinders In Space and its two sequels.
Newman would leave the BBC in 1967. He eventually returned to Canada to
head its National Film Board before finally coming back to work in
England. Newman died on October 30th, 1997.

To fill the gap in the BBC's Saturday schedule, Sydney
Newman considered a show about two boys at a boarding school

In March 1963, Chief of Programmes Donald Baverstock made Newman aware of
a need for a series to bridge the gap between sports showcase
Grandstand and pop music programme Juke Box Jury on
Saturday evenings. Newman considered a variety of ideas, including a show
about two boys at a boarding school, before finally deciding on one of his
favourite genres: science-fiction. He asked Wilson to develop an idea for
a 52-week series, which would be made up of shorter individual
serials.

On March 26th, Wilson convened a meeting with Blaylock, Frick and CE
(Cecil Edwin) “Bunny” Webber, also of the Script Department.
The result was an idea for a series called The Troubleshooters,
about a group of three scientific consultants: a “handsome young man
hero”, a “handsome well-dressed heroine aged about 30”
and a “maturer man, 35-40, with some ‘character’
twist”.

Newman was not thrilled by the proposal. He particularly disagreed with
the decision to avoid using a younger character, feeling that a teenager
would be ideal to help embroil the other protagonists in their adventures.
Newman did concur with the suggestion that the programme might involve the
use of a time machine, and it was he who came up with the idea that this
Ship could be bigger on the inside than on the outside. Newman also found
great inspiration in the character of the “maturer man”.
Eschewing the suggested age, Newman developed a frail, grumpy old man
called the Doctor who has stolen the time machine from his own alien
people.

Newman communicated these thoughts back to Wilson, who under Newman's
reorganised Drama department was now Head of Serials. It was hoped that
the first episode of the new series could be ready for recording (on
videotape) on July 5th at Lime Grove Studio D in western London; film
sequences would be completed at the Ealing Television Film Studios the
week before. The debut transmission would follow on Saturday, July
27th.

In May, BBC veteran Rex Tucker was brought in to serve as producer pending
a permanent appointment. Tucker had gotten his start as a writer for
children's radio programmes, later moving to children's television in the
Fifties. He worked for the BBC as a writer, director and producer, with
credits including a variety of classics serials. It was therefore also
thought that Tucker would direct the new programme's first serial.
Accounts differ as to whether it was Newman or Tucker who christened the
series Doctor Who. Also joining the show around this time was young
director Richard Martin, who was asked to handle some of the other early
Doctor Who episodes. Webber, meanwhile, continued to work on
developing the basis of the series, and around the start of the month
released a first draft of Doctor Who's format guide.

The principal characters would be teenager Biddy, teachers
Lola and Cliff, and the amnesiac Dr Who

In it, he suggested that each serial would be six or seven episodes long,
so that there would be about eight serials over the course of the year. He
recommended that each episode would end on a cliffhanger, a suggestion
much liked by Newman. Webber fleshed out and finished naming the four
principal characters: fifteen year-old teenager Bridget (or
“Biddy”); Lola McGovern, 24 years old (the idea of making the
adult female slightly older seemingly having been dropped), who
“tends to be the one who gets into trouble”; Cliff, 27 or 28
years old, “strong and courageous, a gorgeous dish” and Dr
Who himself, “a frail old man lost in space and time” who
“is suspicious and capable of sudden malignance”. It was noted
that the Doctor would be amnesiac, and the others would therefore christen
him “Dr Who”; he “seems to have some undefined
enemy” and “is searching for something as well as fleeing from
something”. Webber also noted that Lola and Cliff would be teachers
at Biddy's school.

Webber was very concerned about the presentation of Dr Who's time
machine, insisting that it should be neither too science-fictionish --
such as a plastic bubble -- nor too fantastical. In the latter regard, he
dismissed the idea of having it look like a night watchman's shelter as
being simply “a version of the dear old Magic Door”. Instead,
he proposed that the Ship should be “an absence of visibility, a
shape of nothingness”, achieved by virtue of the Doctor painting the
exterior with a light-resistant paint. Webber noted that the machine would
be faulty, plunging the four characters haphazardly back and forth in time
and space; this was another aspect much like by Newman. Webber suggested
that while three of the characters left the vessel to explore their
surroundings, one would always remain with the vessel in order to activate
the time machine at the appointed hour (implying that the characters would
not actually need to be within the Ship in order to be transported with
it).

Webber noted that the first episode should mostly concern the meeting of
Biddy, Lola and Cliff with Dr Who and their discovery of his time
machine; he called this episode “Nothing At The End Of The
Lane”. As a hook for future developments, Webber emphasised the
character dynamics: Dr Who disliking the others, Cliff mistrusting the
Doctor, Biddy having misgivings about Lola, and Lola
“admiring” Cliff. He also enumerated two “secrets of
Dr Who”. The first was that the Doctor had fled his future era to
seek the perfect society in the past; he would therefore be very
antagonistic toward scientists and inventors, and even try to stop
progress. The second secret was that the authorities of the future were
trying to stop Dr Who from eradicating their own time.

As an introductory adventure, CE Webber suggested
shrinking the main characters to a minute size

Finally, Webber suggested that the first two stories should be short, only
four episodes long, and not deal with time travel at all. As an
introductory adventure, he put forward the idea of the four characters
being shrunk to a minute size. He also discussed the idea of a Christmas
serial, throwing out ideas involving Bethlehem, Aladdin, Merlin,
Cinderella (indicating her Fairy Godmother could be Dr Who's estranged
wife pursuing him through time) and even Charles Dickens' A Christmas
Carol (suggesting that Jacob Marley was “Dr Who slightly
tipsy”)!

Newman was not happy with Webber's document, particularly disliking its
portrayal of the Doctor. Newman wanted Doctor Who to have an
educational bent, and therefore felt that the Doctor should be very much
at ease with science and scientists. He also discarded Webber's notions
about the time machine's appearance, desiring a tangible symbol for the
Ship. It was at this point that Newman decided to become more actively
involved in the series' development alongside Webber and Wilson. On May
13th, the decision was made to push back the start of production by four
weeks, to August 2nd.

The next draft of the format guide was produced by Webber in early May,
and incorporated many of Newman's concerns; notably, the section on Dr
Who's “secrets” was dropped entirely. The decision was made at
this stage to find a new name for Biddy, with Mandy, Sue, Gay, Jill, Janet
and Jane suggested as alternatives; Wilson subsequently opted for
“Sue”. The time machine was described as “an old beat-up
model which Dr Who stole when he escaped from his own galaxy in
5733”. In discussing the first episode -- now untitled -- Webber
described how Dr Who would be encountered in the fog by first Sue, and
later Lola and Cliff.

The most significant change in this draft, however, was in the description
of the time machine. Australian writer Anthony Coburn was a BBC staff
writer brought into the Doctor Who fold by Wilson; his previous
credits included episodes of Knight Errant Limited, Dr
Finlay's Casebook and Maigret. It was Coburn who suggested
that the Ship could have the outward appearance of a police box, an idea
which had apparently come to him after spotting one while on a walk near
his office.

Dr Who would have garbled memories of his involvement in a
galactic war

Webber, Wilson and Newman composed another draft of the guide by May 16th.
The serials were now noted as being between four and ten episodes long.
Miss McGovern was no longer named “Lola”, and was noted as
being 23 years old. Sue was to have a crush on Cliff. Cliff and Miss
McGovern were described as being history and science teachers,
respectively. Dr Who was listed as 650 years old, and he would experience
“flashes of garbled memory which indicate that he was involved in a
galactic war”. The first serial, to be written by Webber, was called
“The Giants”, and still used Webber's earlier
“miniaturisation” concept.

During May and June, Webber continued to develop “The Giants”,
despite the growing misgivings of the other production personnel. Newman
was concerned that the serial was “thin on incident and
character” and also disliked its use of “giant” animals
as antagonists. He feared this veered too closely to the “bug-eyed
monsters” he wanted to avoid in Doctor Who. Wilson and Tucker
were concerned that the necessary effects could not be achieved in the
outdated Studio D. Finally, it was decided to drop “The
Giants” altogether.

For a replacement, the production team turned to Coburn, who began to
develop a serial set in the age of the caveman entitled “The Tribe
Of Gum”. (Coburn received a staff commission on June 14th; following
his departure from the BBC for freelance work after the dissolution of the
Script Department in June, his serial was recommissioned on July 3rd.)
Elements of Webber's first episode were incorporated into Coburn's
version, but many key facets continued to evolve. Cliff became headmaster
CE Chesterton (whom Coburn, a devout Catholic, named after author and
theologian GK Chesterton) while Miss Lola McGovern was specified as a
domestic science teacher. Sue -- renamed Suzan and then Suzanne Foreman --
was now an alien princess from Dr Who's home planet and referred to him
as her grandfather (thereby avoiding any unsavory overtones associated
with an older man travelling in the company of a young girl). The Doctor
availed of hypnosis to assist in his stay in 1963 London, using both
smoke from special cigarettes and the light atop his time machine (at
this point called a “Change and Dimensional Electronic Selector
and Extender”). Indeed, at this point, the crisis which results in
Dr Who kidnapping Chesterton and Miss McGovern arises precisely because
the London fog diminishes the effect that his mind-controlling beacon
has on them.

Hugh David turned down the lead role in Doctor Who because he wanted to avoid the
publicity

Around this time, the first permanent production appointment was made to
Doctor Who when another BBC veteran, Mervyn Pinfield, was named
associate producer. Meanwhile, Tucker had approached actor Hugh David
about taking on the lead role in Doctor Who. David, however, had
been unhappy with the publicity incurred by his starring role in Knight
Errant, and did not want to go through the same sort of thing
again.

Toward the end of June, the final pieces of Doctor Who's production
puzzle fell into place when Verity Lambert and David Whitaker were
appointed as the programme's producer and story editor, respectively.
Lambert had begun her career as a typist at ABC before Newman gave her a
job as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre. She later went
to work for American producer David Susskind before joining Newman at the
BBC. Lambert was Newman's second choice for the position; director Don
Taylor had earlier turned it down. Despite her relative inexperience,
Newman felt that Lambert possessed the right combination of independence,
intelligence and stubbornness he wanted on Doctor Who. Whitaker had
gotten his start as an actor, producer and director in the theatre. He
began writing in the 1950s and moved over to television when he was
commissioned to adapt one of his plays for the BBC. This led to a
permanent posting in Wilson's Script Department, where Whitaker worked
on programmes such as the soap opera Compact.

Coburn continued to develop “The Tribe Of Gum” through June
and into July. Dispensing with the Doctor's propensity for hypnosis,
Coburn instead devoted more time to detailing Dr Who and Suzanne's
background. He revealed that Dr Who is actually a Lord of the House of
Dooclare, who rescued the young Findooclare, heir to the throne, when
their planet was attacked by the Palladin hordes. They are being pursued
through time and space by an unnamed enemy, and the Doctor kidnaps the
two teachers -- now science master Mr Chesterton and history teacher
Miss Canning -- to prevent this foe from acquiring information about
them.

In the original ending, the tribe befriends the time
travellers after Ian successfully makes fire

Meanwhile, Coburn had also been commissioned to write a second Doctor
Who serial, entitled “The Robots” and later “The
Masters Of Luxor”. Despite this, neither Lambert nor Whitaker was
particularly fond of “The Tribe Of Gum”, and approached
producer Terence Dudley about writing a replacement. Nothing came of this,
however, and so work on Coburn's scripts continued. The dialogue was
refined to refer to the lead character only as “The Doctor” --
a convention that would be adopted in future serials as well. Miss Canning
and Suzanne became Barbara Wright and Susan, while Chesterton gained the
forename Ian. The explicit details of the Doctor and Susan's background
were largely removed, while the time machine became the TARDIS: Time And
Relative Dimension In Space (although the plural “Dimensions”
would also be used throughout much of the programme's history). In the
subsequent installments, the lead caveman Gum was renamed Kal and Old
Mother no longer survived the story's events. The ending was also revised
to make it more action-packed, as opposed to Coburn's original version
in which the tribe befriends the time travellers after Ian successfully
makes fire.

In late June, auditions got under way for the leading roles; on the list
for Susan was a young actress named Anneke Wills, who failed to appear
after her agent forgot to inform her of the audition. Meanwhile,
production delays arising from the script problems had caused considerable
friction between the Doctor Who office and the Planning Department.
Newman himself was forced to intervene. Finally, it was agreed that the
start of production on Doctor Who would be delayed again to
September 27th, when a pilot episode would be recorded. Further
installments -- including the first episode, should the pilot prove
unsatisfactory -- would then be recorded weekly beginning on October 18th.
Part one of “The Tribe Of Gum” would air on November 9th, when
Doctor Who would replace Deputy Dawg in the BBC
schedules.

Because of the overhaul of the production schedule, it was realised that
Tucker would not be available to direct “The Tribe Of Gum”. He
was instead shifted back to the second serial, with that story's original
director, Waris Hussein, replacing him on the introductory adventure.
Hussein, one of the BBC's most junior directors, had previously handled
episodes of series such as Compact and Moonstrike. It was
hoped that Hussein and Tucker would alternate serials over Doctor
Who's 52 weeks.

William Hartnell had found himself typecast in
straight-laced roles, and particularly gruff military types

Not finding Tucker's casting suggestions -- including an Australian
actress for Susan -- helpful, Lambert and Hussein instead made their own
search, conducted during July. For the key role of the Doctor, Whitaker
suggested Cyril Cusack and Pinfield recommended Leslie French, but the
role eventually went to William Hartnell. After trying his hand at a
number of small-time jobs in his youth, Hartnell had become an actor in
the mid-Twenties, starting in theatre and quickly moving to film. After
enjoying playing a rich variety of characters in the early part of his
career, Hartnell eventually found himself typecast in straight-laced roles
-- particularly gruff military types -- in films such as The Way
Ahead, as well as the television comedy series The Army
Game.

To play Ian Chesterton, Lambert cast William Russell. Born Russell Enoch,
he had begun acting while serving with the RAF, and subsequently moved
into theatre. Enoch assumed his stage name in the mid-Fifties, and
thereafter earned roles in films such as The Great Escape, in
addition to playing the title role in the series The Adventures Of Sir
Lancelot.

As Barbara Wright, Lambert chose Jacqueline Hill, whom she met via Hill's
husband, director Alvin Rakoff, a friend of Lambert's. A former model,
Hill had acted on stage, film and television, with credits in the latter
medium counting such programmes as Maigret and Armchair
Theatre.

Finally, after considering actresses for Susan including Jackie Lane (who
was not interested in a year-long role), Lambert selected Carole Ann Ford.
A former child actress, Ford had been in the movie Day Of The
Triffids and television shows like Compact and
Moonstrike.

On July 31st, the cast was contracted for 52 weeks. However, the BBC had
the option of dropping any of them after the eighth episode, the 20th
episode, and the 36th episode.

By the middle of July, Whitaker produced a new version of the format
guide. In addition to using the most recent names of the companions, he
also emphasised that the time machine could travel “sideways”
as well as backwards and forwards in time and space, and that the
characters would rely on their ingenuity rather than science-fiction
technology to solve problems. Whitaker also stated that the travellers
could not change history. The Doctor was now described as simply
“over 60”, and the reason for the Doctor and Susan being on
1963 Earth was given as Susan wanting to “go to school and create at
least one complete section of experience”. It was noted that the
Ship was incapable of travelling into the Doctor and Susan's own future,
beyond 5733.

Zenith Film Productions claimed that Doctor Who was a copy of their unmade puppet
series The Time Travellers

On July 23rd, it was decided to hold back Doctor Who's premiere for
another week, until November 16th. Also around this time, the BBC was
faced with potential legal action from Zenith Film Productions Ltd, which
had attempted to interest the Corporation in a puppet series called The
Time Travellers, created by Martin and Hugh Woodhouse, who had earlier
worked for Gerry Anderson on his Supercar series. Although The
Time Travellers had been turned down because of its similarity to
Doctor Who, Zenith now claimed that Doctor Who was a copy of
their product. Nothing would come of this, however.

To compose the Doctor Who theme music, Lambert originally hoped to
commission French group Les Structures Sonores. When this did not work
out, Lambert instead successfully obtained the services of Ron Grainer,
who would work in conjunction with the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop,
particularly arranger Delia Derbyshire. Grainer was contracted on August
2nd.

The first filming for Doctor Who took place on August 20th, when
Bernard Lodge of the BBC Graphics Unit recorded the series' title
sequence. This used the “howl-around” technique, in which
feedback is generated by pointing a camera at a monitor displaying the
camera's own output. By the end of the month, it was decided that Rex
Tucker -- who was due to leave for holidays -- would not return to
Doctor Who, a job with which he had never been entirely satisfied.
On September 9th, Doctor Who's first broadcast was pushed back yet
again, to November 23rd. On the 13th, test filming was carried out for the
materialisation/dematerialisation effect which would signify the arrival
and departure of the TARDIS; this session had been postponed from July
19th.

Whitaker, meanwhile, had made further amendments to Coburn's script, in
particular toning down the more overtly romantic aspects of Ian and
Barbara's relationship. The final segment had to be amended to lead into
The Daleks, the serial which had replaced
the “The Masters Of Luxor”. Originally, the part four
cliffhanger would have seen the TARDIS materialise near a Frank Lloyd
Wright-style house floating in the air. With the abandonment of
“Luxor”, Coburn's involvement with Doctor Who came to
an end. He had been at odds with Lambert and Whitaker for some time, and
was not disappointed to leave the series behind. Coburn would become a
prolific writer and producer before his death in 1978.

During recording the TARDIS doors failed to close
properly, and stagehands were visible trying to control them

Filming for episode one, An Unearthly Child, took place at Ealing
on September 19th. The only actor required was Leslie Bates, who cast the
caveman “shadow” seen at the end of the installment. The day
after, the main cast assembled for its first photocall. An Unearthly
Child was then recorded at Studio D on the 27th. This saw the debut of
the TARDIS console room set, designed by Peter Brachacki and constructed
by an independent firm called Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge. The second
half of the episode -- beginning with Ian and Barbara's entrance into the
TARDIS -- was recorded twice. During the first attempt, the TARDIS doors
failed to close properly, and stagehands were clearly visible in the
completed footage trying to control them.

On October 4th, having viewed both versions of the pilot episode, Newman
informed Lambert and Hussein that An Unearthly Child would have to
be recorded again. Apart from a number of technical blunders -- Barbara's
shoe became jammed in the classroom set at one point, for example --
Newman also felt that the pacing was slow and that the Doctor was too
unlikeable. Susan's alienness would also be toned down, and her assertion
that she hails from the 49th century (a slight change from the 5733 date
earlier cited in the format guide) was replaced with a vague statement
about her coming from another time and planet.

Meanwhile, Chief of Programmes Donald Baverstock had not yet agreed to
further production of Doctor Who beyond the initial four-part
serial. On the 16th, however, he finally relented and gave the go-ahead
for nine further episodes. Two days later, Baverstock sent Wilson a memo
just before departing on a three-week leave indicating that, due to
perceived budgetary overruns, he was withdrawing his permission for
Doctor Who to continue beyond four episodes. Fortunately,
however, Baverstock had been acting on erroneous data -- in particular,
he had not accounted for the fact that the cost of the TARDIS console
room set would be spread out over the entire season and not just the
first thirteen episodes -- and Wilson and Newman were able to reach an
agreement with the Planning Department.

The remaining filming for Serial A was completed from October 9th to 11th,
concentrating on the fight between Kal and Za. An Unearthly Child
was then remounted on Friday, the 18th; it was around this time that the
serial was renamed 100,000 BC. At this point, Brachacki -- unhappy
with Doctor Who -- was replaced as set designer by Barry Newbery.
Also missing from the original recording was Fred Rawlings, who played the
policeman; he was replaced by Reg Cranfield. The remaining three episodes
were then recorded on consecutive Fridays until November 8th, although a
brief sequence from the third episode, The Forest Of Fear, was
taped on the preceding Thursday.

The debut of Doctor Who was
overshadowed by the assassination on November 22nd of American President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Doctor Who's debut was originally to be accompanied by an
appearance on the front cover of Radio Times, the BBC's listings
magazine. However, this decision was reversed at the start of November by
Kenneth Adam, Controller of Programmes, who was uncertain about the
success of the new series. In the event, the first major promotion for
Doctor Who came in the form of a trailer broadcast at 5.41pm on
November 16th; a second trailer was transmitted on the 22nd at 5.59pm. On
the 21st, a press conference attended by the four lead actors and Whitaker
was held to launch Doctor Who. On the same day, the BBC Home
Service aired a radio trailer read by Hartnell.

Unfortunately, the debut of Doctor Who was vastly overshadowed by
the assassination on November 22nd of American President John Fitzgerald
Kennedy. This, combined with a widespread power blackout during the
broadcast, prompted the BBC to repeat An Unearthly Child the
following Saturday (except in Northern Ireland), immediately before
episode two, The Cave Of Skulls. Despite many false starts and
hurdles in its path, Doctor Who was finally on course toward the
future...